Internal strife over the deployment of a U.S. advanced missile system continued to roil the main opposition party on Thursday, as the party leader and a group of first termers clashed over the latter’s controversial trip to China earlier this week.

During the party’s general assembly, The Minjoo Party of Korea Chairman Rep. Kim Chong-in rebuked the party members for causing a stir by visiting the neighbor state amid growing concerns about Beijing’s assertive attitude toward Seoul’s decision to install the Terminal High Altitude Area Defense battery. 

The conservative-minded leader, who is to step down when the party elects a new leader on Aug. 27, has avoided expressing his views about the THAAD deployment publicly and had urged his party members to be cautious.

“A party does not deserve its existence if it does not show determination to seize power or fails to show capacity to hold power,” Kim said in what was his last general assembly address as leader.

“Only when we make a consistent set of actions through cool-headed and sharp reviews (of positions and policies) will we be able to receive continuous support from the people.”

He also went on to call for a change in the way the party has been operating, pointing specifically to radical-minded members who have been pressing Kim to officially oppose the THAAD deployment. 

“The political party does not exist for the sake of your intellectual satisfaction. Even if you think that the Minjoo Party’s position may seem extremely ambiguous or does not fit your beliefs, there is no choice but to lead the party the way (I did) as winning (the next administration) is a crucial task.”

But the dissenting members, particularly the six lawmakers who visited China despite Kim’s opposition, continued to tout the trip as improving the strained bilateral relationship by communicating with Chinese leaders over the THAAD.

“We made a breakthrough on icy relations with China,” Rep. Kim Young-ho was quoted as saying during the meeting by the Minjoo spokesperson Rep. Ki Dong-min. Kim, who studied international relations at Beijing University, was one of the six first-termers visiting China.

The central-left party’s official statement also praised the trip for defusing potential bilateral tension and seeking a solution to avoid standoff. In the document, the party spokesman said that the delegates from Korea and China agreed to push for a summit during the G20 meeting from Sep. 4 to 5. 

The opposition lawmakers’ visit to Beijing was heavily criticized by President Park Geun-hye, the ruling Saenuri Party as well as some members of the Minjoo Party. Park has denounced the delegation for “representing the same opinion as North Korea.”

Mindful of the criticism, the delegates engaged in limited activity while in Beijing, mostly devoting their time to low-key meetings with Chinese scholars and Korean residents. The lawmakers said they refrained from making comments and holding events that could be interpreted as advocating Beijing’s position.  

As an example, the lawmakers cited how they refused to include a clause to oppose the missile deployment in a joint declaration adopted after the meeting with officials from the Pangoal institution, a Bejing-based research center dealing with government policies.

“The public attention the trip attracted was much more than we anticipated. Sometimes, we felt overwhelmed and didn’t know what to do,” Rep. Kim Byung-wook said at a press conference on Wednesday. “But we kept in mind that we represent the legislative body and the people of South Korea,” he said.

Meanwhile, the president and the Saenuri Party on Thursday vowed to address growing concern over the THAAD deployment’s impact on public health and local agriculture, reiterating their support for the missile system.

“Every attendee shared the view with the president over security challenges,” the party’s new chairman Rep. Lee Jung-hyun told reporters after the meeting at Cheong Wa Dae between the president and the Saenuri leadership. “We talked about offering information (about THAAD) in an accurate and frank manner,” he said.

By Yeo Jun-suk(jasonyeo@heraldcorp.com)